Birthday Trip

For Skip's birthday, we ventured to the Buffalo NY area so we could explore, shop and eat at some new places (for us) and some not-so-new places.

First, we went to East Aurora to visit the Roycroft Campus which according to Wikipedia was a "reformist community of craft workers and artists which formed part of the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20th Century".

I was particularly interested in some of the fibre crafts. This was an embroidered pillow with a pinecone motif.

The stained glass lamps were beautiful. This one was Tiffany style.

The straight lines are very characteristic of the Arts and Crafts style.

Across from the Campus is the Roycroft Inn which was restored in the 1990s. Of course much of the furniture is in Arts and Crafts style.

On Main Street there are many cute business and eateries. Red's serves 'Beef on Weck' a Buffalo specialty with thinly sliced, rare roast beef on a kummelweck roll. Traditionally the top bun gets a dip au jus and is spread with horseradish.

We did not partake this time, rather we enjoyed lattes a couple of doors down at Taste Café. Once in there, we realized we had eaten at the same place several years ago on our first visit to East Aurora.

We then visited the Carriage Quilt Shoppe where I received a free fat quarter when I told the proprietor that it was Skip's birthday. Bonus! I also bought a cute panel of vintage sewing items. The owner also followed Skip around her shop chatting him up. I told him it was because he had forgotten his wedding ring and she was hitting on him. He thought she was worried he'd steal something. I believe she doesn't get many men in her shop, much less cute ones like Skip.

After checking in at our hotel, we had dinner at La Tolteca, a Mexican restaurant we've visited several times. Unfortunately the service was very slow. We figured there must have been some crisis in the kitchen because we didn't see food come out for almost 1/2 hour and everyone around us was waiting for their food as well. Next time we'll try another restaurant.

On Friday we shopped at several of our favourite spots including JoAnn Fabrics, Big Lots, Lockport Outdoor Store, WalMart, Lockport liquor store, etc. We had lunch at Wegmans Market Café and dinner at the Buffalo Brew Pub.

The next morning (yesterday) we made a return visit to JoAnn's and the Lockport Outdoor Store, had lunch at the Glen Park Tavern in Williamsville, then began the drive home, arriving at about 4:30pm.

It was a fun trip.

I now have several projects to complete for Christmas and more Christmas preparations to do as well (baking, cleaning, organizing, gift wrapping, etc.). Scooter is arriving tomorrow for a couple of days. Tomorrow I'm stitching at Barb's and on Tuesday Marilyn is coming over to do some ornament finishing. There are still lots of activities leading up to Christmas.